SpaceX scores a Starship success on 11th test. Here's what that means.

When employees at SpaceX HQ saw their latest Starship rocket make a steady, controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, after an hour-long flight where it passed every test, the atmosphere was jubilant — and more than a little patriotic.

"USA, USA," engineers chanted on the SpaceX livestream from Starbase in Brownsville, Texas — jumping and pumping fists in a style more like a sports game than NASA Mission Control.

Still, celebration was warranted — for SpaceX as much as for the U.S. space program.

NASA's moon plans, already much delayed and facing competition from the Chinese space program, cannot proceed without Starship. And Starship, with a $4.2 billion contract on the line, cannot proceed until it has proved its ambitious launch-and-return maneuvers to be safe.

This was the Elon